A Martial Artist's View of The Film: "Munich"

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The Middle East is flaring up once more with kidnappings in Lebanon and the West Bank, missiles becoming fired on Haifa, for the very first time in history, provoking aggressive reprisals by the Israeli military.

What much better time than to view the Stephen Spielberg movie, "Munich," about the murders of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, and the countermeasures they spawned?

What this film accomplishes is really important. It raises these key questions for the martial artist:

When can people and societies justify employing force?

When we pick out the path of violence, what happens to our humanity and to what we look at to be humane values?

Is there such a factor as a righteous fight?

The characters in this film are, regardless of their effectiveness at killing each other, pitiable.

Initially, they kill each other, and then they kill their spirits by seeing that: (1) The consumers they have eliminated are quickly replaced (two) The replacements are frequently a great deal more ruthless and (3) Inevitably, the hunters develop into the hunted.

Finally, this question emerges: What is the only fight that you're guaranteed to lose?

Answer: The one with yourself.

We fight ourselves all the time when we're ambivalent, or guilt ridden, or just negative.

This vortex of violence in the Middle East induces all of these feelings, and a lot more.

You shouldn't miss this film, no matter what your politics are.